To bring together my ideas from the past 2 weeks, I decided to have a small exhibition in college. The theme was a satirical take on egotism, as much an exaggerated faux self portrait as it was an expression of my view on parts of society. It featured a video by myself and another by first year student, Milo Crease, where he had reacted to a brief titled, 'off the ground'. I felt Milo's video fitted into my theme slightly as it was quite self indulgent and in equal proportions ridiculous in comparison to the other works. I had an idea to build a really high plinth and put a cat on top of it, simply referencing being stuck. I developed this idea beyond a single work, thinking about how it could be re-used with a different object on top each time, suggesting some kind of elevation of said object. This time I felt it was appropriate to place my laptop on top on the plinth, playing the the song, 'simply the best', by Tina Turner, on loop, emphasising this idea of elevation in a social sense at the same time as literally by height. The plinth didn't fit the laptop exactly because it was an after though, in an ideal world I would have built a plinth that fitted perfectly, keeping the relevant aspects of presentational tradition in place. In an attempt to utilise the features of the space, I decided to place my 'Orifice' sculpture on the radiator, a plasticine lump with a centre of my own bubbling spit powered by a fish tank pump. Looking back I feel the work could of been made more of a spectacle by having its own plinth. At the same time it provoked thoughts of abjection, it was a quick joke about people talking nonsense, placed opposite another sculpture of a chisel with a line of salt posing as cocaine. As a show that was created in 2 weeks time, I feel happy about they way it looked but certainly on review there were things I would change. This way of working however, churning out ideas quickly, is something I should have been doing for the last 2 years and learning from my mistakes, part of this is making up for that lost time.
